Leica Geosystems to present at ISPRS

Leica Geosystems, as part of Hexagon, will once again present at the quadrennial congress of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) 12-19 July in Prague, Czech Republic.

The leader in reality capture and measurement technology will take part in both the conference and trade fair, featuring complete solutions on the show floor and participating in presentations at the forum. Along with its sister brand, Hexagon Geospatial, Geosystems airborne solutions will be provided for hands-on displays and in comprehensive discussions.

Visualising data for today’s information needs

There will be two Hexagon presentations during the congress:

1. Digital Realities
12 July, 4:30 p.m.

From when the first humans stopped their nomadic ways to farm the land during the Agricultural Revolution to the creation of the steam engine and cotton gin ushering in the Industrial Revolution, change has been a constant since the beginning.
Today, in the midst of the Digital Revolution, the geospatial industry plays a key role in understanding where we are now and where we are going.
As the old saying goes, the only thing that is continuing in this age is everything is changing.
As new technologies consistently advance our world, guiding, positioning and visualising solutions guide us through this latest digital disruption. From managing land and city assets to understanding deviations in critical infrastructure, professionals around the world are creating digital realities to accurately understand their worlds and better execute their work. With this newest capability, the possibilities of human ingenuity are limitless. Discover what is, what can be, and how to achieve success in these digital realities as Hexagon Geosystems President Juergen Dold shares geospatial technology’s effective management of this rapid change.

2. The M.App of the Future is Now
18 July, 9:30 a.m.

There was time when there were no maps. Information was communicated in simple ways. As humans, we make sense of our experience by providing order and structure. We are form givers – communicators of information. For centuries, geographic data has been recorded and shaped into maps. But a map is static and only a reflection of what was, not what is or what should be. In order to fully comprehend change, we need to completely transform data into information services.
The M.App of the future is now, with a new form for envisioning, experiencing and communicating geographic information. Fuse fresh content sources, 360° analytics, targeted workflows, and meaningful visualisations to build an experience that makes sense. Join Hexagon Geospatial President Mladen Stojic as he explores the power of a new form for delivering dynamic information through the M.App of the future.

Employees from Leica Geosystems have also submitted several papers to the congress:

1. A method for in flight geometric calibration for large format mapping cameras

As an evolution of the successful digital camera series, Leica Geosystems introduced the Leica DMC III digital aerial camera. TheDMC III is equipped with a large format PAN camera head with a pixel size of 3.9μm only. This presentation describes the Leica DMC III in flight calibration method in its details and steps. Along with this, an overview of the established quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) procedures is given. A detailed overview of achievable geometric accuracies for different flying heights at 5cm, 8cm and 11cm will be given by Technical Consultant Christian Mueller. Furthermore a first feedback of achieved practical experiences from the market will be presented.

2. CMOS imaging sensor technology for aerial mapping cameras

Leica Geosystems launched the first large format aerial mapping camera using CMOS sensor technology, the Leica DMC III. This paper describes the motivation to change from CCD sensor technology to CMOS for the development of this new aerial mapping camera. The DMC III is now the third generation of large format frame sensor developed by Leica Geosystems for the DMC camera family. It is an evolution of the DMC II using the same system design with one large monolithic PAN sensor and four multi spectral RGBN camera heads. For the first time, a 391 MPixel large CMOS sensor had been used as PAN chromatic sensor, which is an industry record. Along with CMOS technology goes a range of technical benefits. The dynamic range of the CMOS sensor is approximatley twice the range of a comparable CCD sensor and the signal to noise ratio is significantly better than with CCDs. Finally, Leica Geosystems Vice-President of Technical Sales for Airborne Imaging Klaus Neumann results from the first DMC III customer installations and test flights will be presented and compared with other CCD based aerial sensors.

3. A fast and flexible method for meta-map building for ICP-based SLAM

Recent developments in LiDAR sensors make mobile mapping fast and cost effective. These sensors generate a large amount of data, which in turn improves the coverage and details of the map. Due to the limited range of the sensor, one has to collect a series of scans to build the entire map of the environment. If we have good GNSS coverage, building a map is a well addressed problem. But in an indoor environment, we have limited GNSS reception and an inertial solution, if available, can quickly diverge. In such situations, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is used to generate a navigation solution and map concurrently. SLAM using point clouds possesses a number of computational challenges even with modern hardware due to the shear amount of data. Product Managers Ajeesh Kurian and Kristian Morin propose two new strategies for minimising the cost of computation and storage when a 3D point cloud is used for navigation and real-time map building.

Innovative Technologies

At Stand 42-49, 2nd Floor, Leica Geosystems and Hexagon Geospatial will join under the Hexagon banner. The latest innovations will be on display for hands-on demos and experts will be ready to answer any questions. Solutions featured at the booth include: